Another Hasegawa T bolt Bubbletop, my first LSP. November 12, 2022, It is DONE at last!!!!!!!!

[Woody V]

34 minutes ago, JayW said:

I wish I had your patience!  Impatience in this trade degrades the quality of the build.  Lookin' good!

Truth. When it's all said-and-done nobody cares about what went into it, all that matters is the finished product. 

[Citadelgrad]

So having screwed up decalling one time already, meaning 100% of my adult builds features a pretty major flub and redo, ive got a mental block about committing to that kill flag decal.  This weekend at the latest i will take one of the Techmod decals and apply it to my paint mule, just to see how it goes down.  
 

but i cant just stare at it, so i decided to play around with some pastel washes, stolen without shame from others, with above and beyond assistance from our own Thunnus, who guided me to some good assortments, color selection for various base coats, and the importance of a drop of dish soap.  
 

i decided the still unattached cowl would be a decent place to start.  I used the sort of sharp edge of a scribing tool to powder some dark brown and black for the red and mostly upper camo areas of the cowl.  I plan to use a lighter shade for the undersides, and of course a light grey for the blacks. 
 

i am still playing with this, but i like it so far.  The key, for me, is to get an ever so almost damp wiping tool, so far q tips work very well but rapidly become saturated with color and need to be changed for a new one very frequently, and paper towel works well too.  Too much water and you just wash away all of the pastel, not enough and there is some residue where you dont want it.  Its not quite wiping off with a perfectly dry towel, but the slightest but of moisture is almost too much. 
 

photos, please note that this is a bit messy, i was mid session when i took these, but didnt realize i had a lot more to do. There is quite a bit of extraneous pastel where it shouldnt be in the first photos

these really are bad, it doesnt look this messy any more 

 

any way, i liked this so much, and i made too much pastel up, so i did the horizontal tail uppers and the left wing. I was a half hour more experienced at this point, so these photos, although not perfect, show a much more finished result 

 

contrast this with the right, unpasteled (?) wing

 

Really pops the great Hasegawa surface detail. 

 

 

the “blooming” ahead of the flaps has been corrected, i saw it in this photo as i was uploading.  
 

the absolute best part of this process is, if you hate it, a moist paper towel and its like it never happened. 
 

i will admit my OCD is starting to ping at that molding defect ahead of the flap area.  Both wings.   How did i not see that before clear coat?  

[Woody V]

1 hour ago, Citadelgrad said:

i will admit my OCD is starting to ping at that molding defect ahead of the flap area.  Both wings.   How did i not see that before clear coat?  

Don't worry about it, it'll disappear once you get a satin or dull coat on it. 

[MikeMaben]

Hi Bill, when I use pastels, or in some cases watercolors in recessed details, I cut a small

piece of paper (newspaper for example works well) and get it damp (not wet) and drag it

accross the area never using the same piece of paper twice as it will just smear after that.

That way nothing enters the recesses to remove the color.

Tbolt is looking good.

[JayW]

8 hours ago, Citadelgrad said:

so i decided to play around with some pastel washes, stolen without shame from others, with above and beyond assistance from our own Thunnus, who guided me to some good assortments, color selection for various base coats, and the importance of a drop of dish soap.

 

As a modeler whose Achilles heal is paint and weathering, I am interested in learning a few things you have learned in this P-47D adventure of yours.  Need not clutter up you thread. BTW - your weathering is looking very convincing!

[Alex]

Pastels are a great and IMO underutilized resource.  Great work so far.  Just one note, and your paint mule is probably a good place to experiment with this, in my hands at least application of a clear coat over pastels tends to lessen their visual impact (sometimes greatly lessen).  So if you plan on flat coating over them, you may want them to look a bit over-done prior to the clearcoat.  Best tested on scrap first, though. 

[Paramedic]

Lovely build and a great subject! I adore T-bolts.. ^^

[Citadelgrad]

On 9/16/2021 at 12:08 AM, Archer Fine Transfers said:

Don't worry about it, it'll disappear once you get a satin or dull coat on it. 

Fingers crossed, Woody!  Thanks for following along. 

On 9/16/2021 at 12:23 AM, MikeMaben said:

Hi Bill, when I use pastels, or in some cases watercolors in recessed details, I cut a small

piece of paper (newspaper for example works well) and get it damp (not wet) and drag it

accross the area never using the same piece of paper twice as it will just smear after that.

That way nothing enters the recesses to remove the color.

Tbolt is looking good.

Thanks, Mike, i laid in a supply of newspaper and will try that out as soon as i get the decals set. 

On 9/16/2021 at 7:29 AM, JayW said:

 

As a modeler whose Achilles heal is paint and weathering, I am interested in learning a few things you have learned in this P-47D adventure of yours.  Need not clutter up you thread. BTW - your weathering is looking very convincing!

Thanks so much, Jay, as you know your build are basically my reference.  

On 9/16/2021 at 10:08 AM, Alex said:

Pastels are a great and IMO underutilized resource.  Great work so far.  Just one note, and your paint mule is probably a good place to experiment with this, in my hands at least application of a clear coat over pastels tends to lessen their visual impact (sometimes greatly lessen).  So if you plan on flat coating over them, you may want them to look a bit over-done prior to the clearcoat.  Best tested on scrap first, though. 

Thank you for sharing this, i will try it out on my mule.  

7 hours ago, Paramedic said:

Lovely build and a great subject! I adore T-bolts.. ^^

Thanks so much, me, too.  The Mustang gets all the girls but T Bolts have always held my attention. 
 

so i put it off long enough, after screwing up the first decal attempt, i had to give it another go.  I did dutifully apply an unneeded tail number to the paint mule, both to see how they go down generally, and to check for a propensity to silver. 
 

pleased to report that despite some reports that some Techmod decals seem impervious to solutions, at least this sheet seems to like micro set and sol.  I dont really want the kill markings to necessarily conform to every panel line, as they were just stickers and wouod not have conformed like that. 
 

With that box checked, i got some fresh warm water and carefully cut out the kill markings. They seem to have gone down fine, so well that i decided to go with the other decal, wasnt sure what it was but its prominent on every photo of this part of the plane. 

its a crew placard, and its fully legible. 

 

and so are the model types over each kill marker.  Any issue with legibility is my poor photography.  

Should i hit these with a bit of clear to protect them while i am weathering?  I dont expect that either will be directly weathered, amd i am using lacquer clear, if that matters. 
 

weathering will be a pastel panel line treatment, and some oil washes. Probably very minor pencil chipping. 
 

one last beauty shot!

if the decals were both flat and good when i left it, do i need to check it continuously, or should it be fine?

[MikeMaben]

40 minutes ago, Citadelgrad said:

 I dont really want the kill markings to necessarily conform to every panel line, as they were just stickers and wouod not have conformed like that.

 

Good point Bill.

 

42 minutes ago, Citadelgrad said:

      ...if the decals were both flat and good when i left it, do i need to check it continuously, or should it be fine?

 

If there's no silvering now, you won't see it 'til they're dry anyway.

You know how to handle silvering now anywat.  They look good to go. 

[Citadelgrad]

Just now, MikeMaben said:

 

Good point Bill.

 

 

If there's no silvering now, you won't see it 'til they're dry anyway.

You know how to handle silvering now anywat.  They look good to go. 

Thanks, Mike! 
 

i snuck out and snapped a few photos as i checked it, it looks good so far.  
 

 

i also took a few of my progress on the cowl

 

Im really happy with the pastel results, and cant wait to do the rest of the airframe. 

[Paramedic]

2 hours ago, Citadelgrad said:

Thanks so much, me, too.  The Mustang gets all the girls but T Bolts have always held my attention.
i

Well, they certainly did the hard part of the job.. Much of it was done when the glory boys showed up, no question about that.

 

I have never seen any pilot flying both aircraft, talking down the P-47s.. Quite the opposite.. But they wanted the P-51s for a greater chance to see enemies..

And even that is a bit iffy - had the T-bolts actually been given enough support on drop tanks..

 

 

 

But you probably know that.

 

Sorry, slightly off topic but it is a good tips, his channel is great.

 

Nice decaling, it looks even better.

[Citadelgrad]

9 hours ago, Paramedic said:

Well, they certainly did the hard part of the job.. Much of it was done when the glory boys showed up, no question about that.

 

I have never seen any pilot flying both aircraft, talking down the P-47s.. Quite the opposite.. But they wanted the P-51s for a greater chance to see enemies..

And even that is a bit iffy - had the T-bolts actually been given enough support on drop tanks..

 

 

 

But you probably know that.

 

Sorry, slightly off topic but it is a good tips, his channel is great.

 

Nice decaling, it looks even better.

Thanks, Paramedic!
 

working my way around with the pastels. I foolishly did the underwing white stripes, this will likely be obliterated when i do some oil treatment of the ejection chutes, but whatever….

 

 

 

looks pretty messy at this point.  

[Woody V]

37 minutes ago, Citadelgrad said:

 

working my way around with the pastels. I foolishly did the underwing white stripes

 

What exactly are you concerned about? 

[bdthoresen]

Meh, nothing to worry about. If your clear was good enough, it should come off clean. I also use the triangular-shaped make-up sponges on pastels. Looking good so far.

 

Thor    

[Citadelgrad]

25 minutes ago, Archer Fine Transfers said:

 

What exactly are you concerned about? 

Oh, nothing really.  I just realized that when I use oils to simulate gunfire soot at the chutes, this version of the pastel in the area behind the stains will probably wipe off and need to be redone. A minor issue of order of work, a mental note for next time.